Studies have implicated the essential role of Vitamin A (VA) and its active metobolite, retinoic acid (RA) in both host defense and tolerance through manipulation of various immune cells, including T cells, B cells, macrophages and others. CD8⁺ T...

Self-reconfiguring (SR) robots are modular systems that can autonomously change shape, or reconfigure , for increased versatility and adaptability in unknown environments. In this thesis, we investigate planning and control for systems of...

Antibodies are known to be a primary correlate of protection in almost all current vaccines, and thus evaluating the antibody response is of critical importance in attempting to predict the efficacy of novel vaccine candidates. Historically...

The main theme of this thesis is to investigate the origins of photosensitizer pharmacokinetic variability, how this pharmacokinetic variation affects photodynamic therapy (PDT), and to search for innovative strategies to reduce the...

Microbial biofilm formation is thought of as a developmental pathway, whereby cells progress through environmentally regulated and temporally distinct stages during transition from free-swimming lifestyles to members of a structured...

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular pathogen that is able to survive in a range of hosts due to its repertoire of secreted effector proteins. Utilizing the type I and type II Δku80 strains we engineered a collection of targeted knockout...

Recombinant protein production has traditionally relied on organisms with well developed molecular biological tools, such as E. coli. However, E. coli is not suited for large industrial scale production due to its propensity to produce organic...

The Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL1) gene was first cloned as a hot spot of chromosomal translocations in acute leukemia. More than 70 fusion proteins of MLL1 have been described in both lymphoid and myeloid leukemia and many are highly associated...

Semen is the major vector for sexual transmission of HIV worldwide, yet little is known about its role in modulating mucosal transmission of HIV. Understanding the impact of semen on mucosal transmission of HIV could open up novel means of...

The data presented herein demonstrate the requirement for CD154/CD40 in the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model for multiple sclerosis. Blockade of CD154/CD40 interactions causes a decrease in T cell and...

Leukemia represents a small percentage of human cancer, accounting for about 5% of all cases of cancer in adults, but, interestingly, for about 50% of all cases of cancer in children. The behavior of leukemia is often regulated by the chromosomal...

Scleroderma (systemic sclerosis; SSc) is a devastating autoimmune disease of unknown etiology for which there is no cure, and no truly effective therapies available. Immune dysfunction, fibrosis and vasculopathy are the three major features of the...

Despite immunogenicity, melanoma-specific vaccines have demonstrated minimal clinical efficacy in patients with established disease, but enhance survival when administered in the adjuvant setting. It has been shown that T cell infiltration of...

Bradyrhizobium japonicum forms a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with soybean. Signaling events, such as production of flavonoids and Nod factor, initiate the interaction, leading to formation of specialized root organs called nodules. A B. japonicum...

Accurate segregation of meiotic chromosomes requires that sister-chromatids remain physically associated from the time of their synthesis during S phase until they segregate toward opposite poles at anaphase II. In Drosophila melanogaster meiosis,...

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor with a very poor prognosis despite multi-modalities of treatment. As a result, there is a critical need to develop alternative therapies. Propentofylline (PPF) is a...

The overall scope of my thesis project is to determine effects of farnesol, a secreted factor produced by C. albicans , on P. aeruginosa virulence. These two organisms are frequently found with one another in mixed infections and our lab has...

Immunosuppressive leukocytes are emerging as a critical factor in facilitating tumor progression. These leukocytes are converted by the tumor microenvironment to become tolerogenic, facilitate metastasis, and to aid in neo-vascularization. The...

The unifying theme of this work has been the use of forward genetics to identify three new genes - each thought to play an important yet unrecognized role in either the core circadian oscillator of Neurospora crassa , or in its main physiological...

The potential for the immune system to control growing tumors was recognized over a century ago. Studies during the past 20 years have presented undisputable evidence that host T cells have the ability to recognize, and kill tumor cells. However,...

The potential of peptide mimics of V. cholerae lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to elicit cross-reactive immune responses against LPS was investigated, as an alternative approach towards the development of a cholera vaccine. Peptide mimics of two...

Acyl-CoA: cholesterol acyltransferases (ACATs) are key enzymes in cellular cholesterol metabolism. There are two isoenzymes, ACAT1 and ACAT2. Here I performed biochemical analyses of individual amino acids within c-terminal loop of ACAT1 and showed...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a virulent opportunistic pathogen that is frequently cultured from infectious sites, and is estimated to cause ~12% of nosocomial infections worldwide [1]. P. aeruginosa infections occur in a majority of adults with the...

Runx1 is required for the formation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) during embryogenesis. The extent of developmental plasticity inherent to the HSC remains in question. We developed a system whereby the developmental fate of all Runx1...

Mast cells (MC) have until recently been regarded as pro-inflammatory, however this view changed with the observation that the absence of MC impairs the development of transplant tolerance to allografts. However, little is known about whether MC...

Adaptive immunity licenses higher organisms to generate potent immune responses against foreign antigens. Two hallmarks of adaptive immunity are A) the ability of T and B cells to distinguish self from non-self and B) the ability to mount a...

Since its discovery in the 1930's, the Cherenkov effect has been paramount in the development of high-energy physics research. It results in light emission from charged particles traveling faster than the local speed of light in a dielectric...